Day The World Ended (1955)

Starring Richard Denning, Lori Nelson, Adele Jergens, Touch Connors, Paul Birch
Directed by Roger Corman
(actor & director credits courtesy IMDB.com)

Atomic fallout brings seven lone survivors together in a shielded house, but with limited food and the threat of rain that will irradiate them, they face an uncertain future.

This early Roger Corman production has a screenplay that borrows character types and tropes from numerous past films, but it still has some worthwhile ideas and is fronted by a good cast, particularly Denning and Birch, whose serious performances make the more fantastic elements believable.  Birch in particular as a former military captain who prepared his home for the end of the world but not for all the strangers that ended coming his way, anchors the picture, asserting his control with a stentorian tone and manner.  Connors' violent thug who provides the chief conflict among the characters is little more than a stereotype, as is Jergens as his boozy moll, who could have both stepped right out of Key Largo, but Paul Dubov's irradiated victim who mysteriously survives his apparent death is an intriguing addition, setting up the story's logical development of men mutated into monsters.  Ronald Stein provides an effective score, and Paul Blaisdell's creature suit is cheap but still has a fearsome countenance.  I enjoyed the picture for what it was, an early attempt by Corman to mine thrills on a low budget, and think it works on that level.